Quick Surrender

The Malta Independent

Quick Surrender

Lost as they are on their one way regardless approach towards EU membership, the euro-philes were caught totally unprepared for the true significance of the Swiss EU referendum vote for a special relationship with the EU as embodied in 7 bilateral agreements.

A month before I started preparing for the referendum result in my weekly writings in KULLHADD by explaining my vision of `Switzerland in the Mediterranean concept urging Labour to fleshen up its own vision rather than leaving it as an inanimate slogan.

My writings shifted the euro-phile`s criticsim of the Swiss Model 180 degrees. From saying this was an abstract, far-fetched and unrealistic model they said that this would bring about all the burdens of EU membership without its many benefits.

In doing so the euro-philes committed two grave errors. Firstly they admitted that the Swiss model is neither isolationist nor unrealistic.` Secondly and very incorrectly they argued that the Swiss agreements had all the burdens of membership without any of the benefits.` Such reasoning is either the work of the uninformed or the deceptive, or both.

In their very large majority the Swiss have` no appetite for membership. However, they overwhelmingly endorsed the special relationship.` The benefits are strikingly clear. Whilst through these agreements the Swiss started` moving very cautiously towards free-trade area with the EU not only in goods and services, which largely already exists,` but also in state contracting and freedom of movement of persons, they kept intact their neutrality, their freedom to model their financial services industry differently from the EU, protected their strategic agricultural sector and reserved the freedom to trade freely with the rest of the world without the shackles of a customs union. They also kept the freedom to opt-out of the agreements!

This tangible example of the Swiss agreements has` shifted the local debate from a mere yes , no or I don`t know to the EU membership option to realisation of the existence of another option which has its own` merits and de-merits.` Only by doing so can we start having an informed debate on such an important issue finally leading to an informed verdict in the eventual referendum.

Whilst the electorate is warming up to the Swiss option our so ` called` negotiators are merely going` through the motions of accepting whatever Brussels throws at them. No wonder we are closing chapters faster than anyone else. Negotiations need time. Surrender is quick!

Alfred Mifsud